The Electronic Write
StuffWriting News for the Sunshine State & the Solar System
http://web.fccj.org/~hdenson/writestuff.html (August 2002)
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FLEMING TO WRITERS: BE AWARE OF NATURE

Nature writer Beverly Fleming will give tips to aspiring nature journalists
at the August meeting of the North Florida. Her talk will begin at
2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, in Room F128B of Kent Campus.

She will urge writers simply to be aware. "You should know your
subject matter," she says, "and the best way to know about nature is to
get out there and be a part of it." Observation is the key to success.
A native of Missouri, she has lived in Florida for over 30 years.
She and her husband have lived on the bank of the St. Johns River for 18
years and now live on Marshall Creek, a feeder creek of the Intracoastal.

Before coming to Florida, she lived in the Little Big Horn Mountains
of Wyoming and in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.

She has always been an avid reader and began writing short stories at
about 10 (her mother actually kept many of them). She has been a
writer for the Leader Group (Mandarin News, Beaches
Leader, etc.) for about 13 years and wrote her first book
in 2000.

The contest is open to Northeast Florida college students from ages
18 to 22. Entrants would be reading their own poetry or prose.

BIF says, "We need performers with energy, savvy, poise, and brilliant
insight." The key BIF requirements are performance and content that
is cool, hip, or amazing, heart-stopping and not-a-drag.

Each entry should be limited to less than ten minutes.

Two performers will be selected to appear at Book Island Festival (BIF)
at readings at the Palace Saloon on Friday, Oct. 4, from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

They will appear with John Dufresnse and Nancy Bartholomew, faculty
authors for the Elderhostel writing workshop which is wrapping itself around
BIF this year, as well as slam poet Randy Cappus. The host will probably
be Zoo, a New York musician with the band Great Shakes.

Entrants may enter the competition in two ways by a videotape or a performance
audition. Either method needs to be completed by Monday, Sept. 16.

--They may send a photograph, a one-paragraph bio, and a videotape of
their performance to Contests, FCCJ North Campus, 4501 Capper Rd., Jacksonville,
FL 32218. Include adequate postage and a mailer for return of the
tape and photo.

--They may arrange for an audition at a local poetry venue by contacting
either Lynn Skapyak Harlin at LyHarlin@aol.com or George Gilpatrick at
gyg1@rocketmail.com.

For more information about the Book Island Festival, check their homepage
at www.bookisland.org.

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CHURCH-STATE WRITER TO SPEAK SEPT. 13

An outreach program on Friday, Sept. 13, will feature a talk by
the church-state writer Rev. Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans
United for Separation of Church and State.

His talk will be at Jacksonville Radisson Riverwalk Hotel, 1515 Prudential
Dr., in the Port Ballroom. A reception with cash bar, hors d'oeuvres,
and live music will begin at 6 p.m.

An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on
television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues.
News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's NewsHour,
NBC's Today Show, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor,
ABC's Nightline, CNN's Crossfire, CBS's 60
Minutes, Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes,
ABC's Good Morning America, CNN's Larry King Live,
and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS.

In 1995, Lynn co-authored The Right to Religious Liberty: The
Basic ACLU Guide to Religious Rights. He writes frequently on religious
liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA
Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street
Journal, and The Nation. Lynn also has op-ed columns
published frequently by the Knight-Ridder and Scripps-Howard newspaper
chains.

For more information, contact Ken Hurley at (904) 396- 5242.

***

SUCCESS IN INCHES:ONE SELF-PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE

By CARROL WOLVERTON

Not long ago, I self-published my first book, a self-help and support group
manual entitled Serious Survival: Skills for Single Parents.
It's hardly great literature, but it is a start. Initially, I tried to
interest various publishing houses in accepting it--with no success. Letters
to a few agents met with the same or no response.

I thought self-help books were in demand, but apparently mine wasn't.
I then sleuthed around on the Internet and examined several on-line publishers
and finally found one that was recommended: booklocker.com.

Right before Christmas 2000, they accepted my book and told me that
they only accept about 30% of what is submitted. I had to convert the book
to PDF format in order to meet their submission guidelines. I paid $199
to have it set up in their program and another $99 to have a cover designed.

I was thrilled with the outcome and the quality of the book. I have
earned approximately $100 from the experience to date, so I'm obviously
not going to be able to retire on my writing, but I am now receiving semi-regular
royalty checks and should recover my costs. Each check, small as they might
be, is greeted with total joy on my part.

The book itself is a 139-page manual made up of questions and answers
and is actually quite useful for single parents. It's based on my ten years
working as a single parent counselor in two states and features what I
learned from students training to better their lives.

I consider it a pretty good treatise on "living cheap," plus a whole
lot of discussion on how to deal with ex-husbands, kids, relatives, creditors,
jobs, and problems. The book is an instant support group manual making
it quite useful to persons who conduct groups.

Along the way, I have learned several things:

--Too many people online and off want your money and offer very little
in return. Except for minor amounts, don't fall for it.

--Seek assiduously anything that offers free promotion. One good site
is authorsden.com. I have a web page there at no cost.

--Send individual emails a lot. They are free. Don't send spam.

--Errors that are obvious in some else's work are totally invisible
to me in mine. There should be a Murphy's law for this.

--Have your work proofed and edited by several someones. You may start
with family friends or relatives, but don't end there. There are a few
minor errors in my book that I missed. Any change once it is submitted
in PDF format costs another $199 with Booklocker, so these errors remain
permanent in publication. Fortunately, none are major.

--All marketing is my responsibility. I am constantly emailing or sending
post cards to women's shelters and women's groups, the most likely market
for my book.

--Suggestions and knowledge gleaned from a writers' group such as North
Florida Writers are invaluable.

My Booklocker contract is voidable at any time, meaning that, if I locate
a "real" publisher for the book, I may cancel their contract. I don't want
to do this, however, because I would still be promoting the book myself
no matter what. On the other hand, at some point, I intend to try again
to publish the "regular" way.

--One last suggestion: Submit a copy of your book to the Library
Journal for review. If reviewed and accepted, your book is
listed in the Library Journal making it a candidate for purchase by libraries.
I don't know if I'll be accepted for this as yet, but I'm working on this
market. The address is Book Review Editor, Library Journal, 360 Park Ave.
S., New York, N.Y. 10010. There is no charge for this beyond the cost of
one of your books.

Meetings of NFW are held on the second Saturday of the month at 2 p.m.
on the Kent Campus of Florida Community College of Jacksonville. We generally
meet in F128B (auditorium conference room).
Past speakers have included novelists Jack Hunter, David Poyer, Page
Edwards, Ruth Coe Chambers, William Kerr, Tom Lashley; poets, William Slaughter,
Mary Baron, Mary Sue Koeppel, Dorothy Fletcher, George Gilpatrick; columnists
Vic Smith, Tom Ivines, and Robert Blade; editors Buford Brinlee and Nan
Ramey; agent Debbie Fine; plus many others.

If you are writing a story or poem, you will need some expert feedback--the
sort that you will receive at a meeting of the North Florida Writers.
You won't profit from automatic praise that a close friend or relative
might give or jealous criticism from others who may feel threatened by
your writing.
The NFW specializes in CONSTRUCTIVE feedback that will enable your
manuscript to stand on its own two feet and demand that it be accepted
by an editor or agent. Hence, you need the NFW.
The North Florida Writers is a writer's best friend because we help
members to rid manuscripts of defects and to identify when a work is exciting
and captivating.
Membership is $15 for students, $25 for individuals, and $40 for a
family. (Make out checks to WRITERS.)
Won�t you join today?
The following is an application. Mail your check to WRITERS, Box 109,
FCCJ Kent, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32205.

Name___________________________________________

St. address_______________________________________

Apt. No. ________________________________________

City ________________State _____ Zip ______________

E-mail address: __________________________________

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HOW DOES CRITIQUING WORK?

When you attend a meeting of the North Florida Writers, you eventually
discover that NO ONE has ever died while his or her manuscript was being
read and critiqued. You may be ready to face the ordeal yourself.
. .or, reading this, you may wonder what exactly takes place during a critiquing.
First, you pitch your manuscript into a stack with others' works-in-progress.
Then one of the NFW members hands out each piece to volunteer readers,
taking care NOT to give you back your own manuscript to read.
Second, as the reading begins, each author is instructed NOT to identify
himself or herself and especially NOT to explain or defend the work.
The writer may never have heard the piece read aloud by another's voice,
so the writer needs to focus on the sound of his or her sentences.
Third, at the finish of each selection, the NFW members try to offer
constructive advice about how to make the story better. If a section
was confusing or boring, that information may be helpful to the author.
The NFW will listen to 10 pages (double-spaced) of prose (usually a
short story or a chapter).
UNHELPFUL FEEDBACK: As you listen to a manuscript, you may be
tempted to say, "That's the stupidest piece I've ever heard." Alas,
you aren't being CONSTRUCTIVE. If you simply do NOT like any, say,
science-fiction, then you may not have anything helpful to say. That
is all right. On the other hand, if you think that a piece was going
along okay and then fell apart, you can help the author by saying, "I accepted
the opening page, but, when the singing buffalo was introduced somewhere
on page 2, the piece lost it for me."
* * *

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